Nixing Winn Dixie

I don’t tend to bash on stores all that often, because most of the time I care too little or at least don’t care enough to either promote or demote what they do. It happens occasional that I promote, but is much rarer that I would demote and criticize a place publicly because of my experience with them. Today is a rare day.

My in-laws were in town not too long ago for our Anniversary when we had a small get-together at some friend’s house to celebrate. My mother-in-law, Jan was so kind as to take my grocery shopping the week she was here to help out. Being the “poor” newly weds we are trying to live on little and pay off our debts to society [*ahem* the government] and whatnot, we appreciate the help when we can get it. They stayed in a hotel close to downtown and we live further north so we just stopped at the closest grocery store off of 75N when we came back. It happened to be, as you’ve well guessed by now, Winn Dixie.

I don’t really shop at Winn Dixie much. When I lived somewhere where it was more common (Prattville, AL) my mom did the shopping and it was not her establishment of choice, either. There were some good deals there, though, and a decent selection, so I didn’t have any qualms with the place when we went. My qualm is that a perfectly good package of chicken bought before the expiration date was absolutely, positively RANCID within two days of buying it. I might expect some fresh organic veggies to go bad that fast (though I wouldn’t even hope for that poor of a shelf life on them), but not meat that is refrigerated by the establishment that packaged it, and then by me. Unacceptable. Besides, canned and shelved non-perishable goods are not the measure of a grocers quality, in my mind. Quality comes with freshness and the products that will go bad and require their care.

Dairy. Eggs. Fruits. Veggies. Meat.

I eat lots of these things. If they aren’t good when I buy them from you (especially the milk since I worked with milk for so long and know what it takes to make good milk and know what happens when you don’t put in the efforts), then you can count on me not returning or vouching for your good business practices when it comes to food. I much prefer the looks of these veggies, in our backyard: